Christmas (I think easter) are just pagan holiday(s) dressed up to look like Christian ones. [quote]

Not really. The historical specifics are so detailed and convoluted, you can't really say they are dressed up pagan holidays and be accurate. It's a complete thread unto itself.

True terror lies in the futility of human existence.

Malcolm Reynolds is my co-pilot.

"The only freedom deserving the name, is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it. Each is the proper guardian of his own health, whether bodily, or mental and spiritual. Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems good to themselves, than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest." - John Stuart Mill

Shoeman wrote:Christmas (I think easter) are just pagan holiday(s) dressed up to look like Christian ones.

December 25 is when people in the Northern Hemisphere noticed the days were getting longer, and the Sun god was not going to die after all, mainly a Scandanavian thing.

In the original Greek biblical texts for Acts 12:4, the word is not Easter, but Pesach, that is Passover. According to the Catholic Encyclopeadia, Easter was named after a pagan goddess of the Anglo-Saxons named Eostre, the goddess of the dawn.

Christians do not celebrate Easter at the time of the Jewish Passover.

I just looked on Wikipedia -- very quickly. There are PAGES and PAGES about calculating when Easter is. I learned it was the first Sunday after two weeks after the first full moon after the vernal equinox.

Right now the Christian Churches don't have a consistent way of figuring out the day. I gather a council proposed making it the first Sunday in April a few years' back, but nobody went for it.

Speaking of Biblical archaeology -- I'm watching a documentary right now about the recent discovery of the skull of Rameses II's firstborn son by Kenneth Weeks in KV5. It's got a rather prominent depressed fracture, just from looking at it.

Makes you wonder doesn't it? Wouldn't think God needed a club. . .

Watch it if you can -- these things rerun all the time -- Rameses, Wrath of God or Man on one of the Discovery Channels
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Technically I was baptized catholic and was never excommunicated because they don't know who I am.

In reality I am FSM only and my spirituality is simple:

"I have too much respect for FSM to call him anything else. It makes a clear statement that noone can make any sensible statement on FSM or any other religion by the same token. Therefore, FSM is the only truth."

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PS: The last comment was written by one of mt cats while walking on the keyboard... He does that a lot.

My cats have also attempted communication, but I require a translation first. In fact, one of my cats, has learned a human word: "OUT"! for when she wants to go outside. She's only allowed supervised visits, as she once decided to lie down in front of a (fortunately slowly) moving car.

I was also baptized Catholic, but avoided confirmation. As I was an atheist by then, saying "Yeah, I really *do* believe!" would have been a tad difficult.

The problem is that there is no documentation that a goddess Eostre/Eostra ever existed. She's entirely made up. In fact, there is no such thing as an Anglo-Saxon pantheon.

There is a Scandanavian goddess Ostara, but any attempts to link her to Easter have failed.

The overall theme is that some Christian holidays were purposefully placed at the same time as local indigenous holidays to make conversion more palatable. There were, however, uniquely Christian holidays. (Or, at least as unique as a religion that evolved from those before it could be.)

True terror lies in the futility of human existence.

Malcolm Reynolds is my co-pilot.

"The only freedom deserving the name, is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it. Each is the proper guardian of his own health, whether bodily, or mental and spiritual. Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems good to themselves, than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest." - John Stuart Mill

Yeah, even excommunication is supposed to be just punitive. For some reason, they think you want to eat tasteless little disks of cardboard. I'm still technically a member (having been baptised). But they don't know where I live!